As filmmaker Jim Brown’s documentary Free To Rock makes clear, rock’n’roll music helped bring about the end of the Cold War. Ever since the early 60s, the freedom such music represented was considered ideologically dangerous by Soviet and Eastern Bloc authorities. If in the West some fuddy duddies were worried that the yelling and gyrating might corrupt the youth, behind the Iron Curtain the authorities saw it as a battle for the survival of their whole way of life. Consequently, at any given time in any given place across the region, rock music was censored, restricted or outright banned. This continued until the overthrow of Communist rule in 1989.
This feature could never even begin to touch on even just the tip of the iceberg of that story, and interested readers are directed to Timothy W Ryback’s very thorough overview, Rock Around The Bloc: A History Of Rock Music In Eastern Europe And The Soviet Union, 1954-1988. Suffice to say, by simply just deciding to play bigbit (big beat) music, all the bands mentioned here were part of a struggle incomprehensible to their counterparts in the West. If you could even get the necessary permits and licenses to form a band, you could still only play songs approved by government officials. If you were lucky enough to make a record, the only labels were state owned. By all accounts domestically produced instruments were a nightmare to play, and Western ones were prohibitively expensive if you could get them.
But despite those hurdles, home-grown scenes flourished, particularly in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, but across the whole of Eastern Europe. From the early 60s onwards, bands were picking up on all the latest trends from the other side of the Iron Curtain via black market copies of albums and broadcasts of stations like Radio Luxembourg. Not surprisingly, the domestically produced music started to reflect these trends, and by the late 60s the new far-out sounds from the UK and US were finding their way into the grooves of Communist pop product. Below is a selection of some of the psychedelic sounds that resulted from this magical, revolutionary time when East met West – even today this amazing music remains comparatively unknown to most collectors, and is available at bargain prices.
GRUPA 220 Prolazi Jesen Jugoton SY 1301 Yugoslavia 7”, 1968
Grupa 220 came together in mid-60s Zagreb, the present-day capitol of Croatia. Back then the city was the second biggest in the former Yugoslavia and the band have the distinction of being the first to release a rock LP in that country, 1968’s Naši Dani.
While not essential for acidheads, the album does have some psych flourishes, most notably on the flute- and bongo-driven Negdje Postoji Netko. Also from that year was non-LP 45 Prolazi Jesen, which translates as Autumn Passes. It’s a slow burner of a track with an ominous organ intro and gently wobbly guitar conjuring up images of falling leaves. The last minute features a melancholic descending chord pattern sprinkled with some very trippy organ and guitar effects.
Contemporaries like Pink Floyd were clearly an influence. Indeed the band embraced the burgeoning hippy movement so keenly that instead of a ticket to get into their shows you could use a flower bought from a local florist.
DELFINI Bebel Jugoton EPY 3797 Yugoslavia 7”, 1967
Delfini (translation: The Dolphins) also hailed from Zagreb, where they were active from 1963-’67. The six-piece released two EPs, both in ’67. The first contained a decent cover of that hardy garage band perennial Gloria, which wasn’t so much sung as grunted in English, and can be found pretty cheap. Bebel appeared on the second EP (alongside an unexpected cover of The Kinks’ Most Exclusive Residence For Sale) and is a fuzz-laden band original which in places reminds these ears of Chicago Line’s mod anthem Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop. But unlike that 45, a nice original of Bebel will only set you back a handful of Euros.
INDEXI Plima Jugoton MCY 105 Yugoslavia 7”, 1972
Formed in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1962, Indexi were together until 2001. Despite rnjoying great popularity, in all that time they only managed to release two proper studio albums (in 1978 and 1999) though fans were well-served by a steady stream of compilations, singles and EPs over the years.Starting as a covers band and playing the usual Moscow-approved “pop festivals”, they began to write their own material in 1967, blooming into the former Yugoslavia’s most pioneering progressive band.
Negdje Na Kraju U Zatisju, recorded in 1969 and released on a cassette-only compilation in 1972, was the first song by a Yugoslavian group to last over 10 minutes and was a bona fide piece of prog with all the requisite acts, movements and spoken word passages. Even better for our purposes though is Plima, also released in ’72 but stunningly, recorded in 1968. Appearing on a 331/3 rpm 7”, this is symphonic psych rock before that was really a thing, complete with as mind-bending a guitar solo as you could wish for. If Indexi had been from the US or the UK they would probably be a household name.
TRUBADURZY Dziewczyna I Pejza, Pronit XL 0530 Poland LP, 1969
Along with Skaldowie and Czerwone Gitary (see below) Trubadurzy (“The Troubadours”) were one of the most successful Polish bigbit bands. Formed in Łódź in 1964, the group had to wait until 1968 to be immortalised on plastic.
This track (translation “Landscape And A Girl”) from their second LP is stupendously acidic, the opening 20 seconds being up there with the intro of The Mickey Finn’s Garden Of My Mind in sheer joyous ferocity. Like that monolith of UK psych, we start out with a driving bassline before the rest of the band come crashing in. The guitar tone is fuzzier than a Cossack’s hat, the drums are beaten to within an inch of their lives, and the organ stabs are so high in the mix you have to wonder if someone’s hand slipped on the fader. Add to that a traditional folk-infused melody and you’ve got a delicious Soviet psych borscht.
SKALDOWIE Dwa-Jeden-Zero-Start Muza N 0602 Poland 7”, 1970
Hailing from Poland’s second-largest city, Krakow, Skaldowie formed in 1965 and, like most bands behind the Iron Curtain, they initially made a name for themselves by competing in official (ie, government-organised) contests. After winning several such competitions they released their first LP in 1967.
Early recordings were firmly in the pop-folk vein, but when the band returned from a 1969 tour of the US and Canada sporting a Hammond organ, things started to get proggier. 1970’s LP Od Wschodu Do Zachodu Słońca features their new toy prominently and is worth a listen if you drift towards the progressive side of rock.
Also from 1970 is this funky jazz psych B-side, Dwa-Jeden-Zero-Start (“Two-One-Zero-Start”). It’s groovalicious, baby. Imagine if Brian Auger & The Trinity scored an animated Sesame Street segment (in Polish) and you’ll get the idea. The song also appeared on their ’71 LP Ty, which boasts some quality under-the-radar prog-psych.
ROTE GITARREN Gehen Amiga 855250 East Germany LP, 1971
Rote Gitarren were actually Polish band Czerwone Gitary (“The Red Guitars”) recording for the East German market where they were extremely popular.
Formed in Gdańsk in 1965, the group’s original compositions, Western-influenced fashion sense and chart-topping albums quickly earned them a reputation as the Polish Beatles.
Their 1970 LP Na Fujarce is generally considered to be their masterpiece and well worth picking up even though it is usually priced just beyond the scope of this article. But the good news is the best track on it, Miasta I Ludzie (“Cities And People”), got even better when it was re-recorded in German the following year as Gehen and released under the German translation of their name. Sounding not unlike early UFO, the track comes on like a mod kraut psych hybrid: a rocking yet sparse production with a tasty guitar solo and some cosmic reverb on the chorus. And bonus points for the nod to Sunshine Of Your Love in the final bar.
SCIROCCO-COMBO Wege Mit Guten Namen Amiga 855331 East Germany LP, 1972
This track comes from Hallo Nr 1, the first in a series of 16 compilation albums released in the German Democratic Republic between 1972 and 1976. Featuring mostly East German groups alongside other bands from across the Eastern Bloc, it’s a fascinating series of Soviet folk, prog, funk and psychedelia. Many tracks are exclusive to the series and some groups’ tracks are the only recorded evidence they left behind. The retro-even-then graphics on the covers are great too. Indeed, the series probably deserves an article in its own right, and further investigation is warranted by anyone with an interest in the obscure but intriguing.
On Wege Mit Guten Namen, Scirocco-Combo (later known as simply Scirocco) give us a moody, primitive scoop of Hawkwind-esque cosmic sludge complete with phasing. Prior to 1970 the group existed in several guises that were all banned for being “enemies of the state” – a familiar story in 60s Eastern Europe. In the 80s they went on to become huge in the USSR, Romania and Hungary, and are still gracing stages today.
KRUG Hör Auf! Amiga 8 55 216 East Germany LP, 1971
Manfred Krug was born in 1937 in what became West Germany, moving to East Germany when he was 13 years old. By the end of the 50s he was appearing in films, and as his acting career continued to blossom during the 60s, he also became a notable jazz singer.
In 1971 he released this uncategorisable, must-hear LP, the first of his several collaborations with East German bandleader and film composer Günther Fischer. While not psychedelic per se, it will definitely appeal to anyone who enjoys the other tracks featured in this article, just as it will also appeal to jazz heads, funk buffs and international pop aficionados. The production is insanely inventive and sounds fresh even almost 50 years on.
It’s almost rude to pick just one song to highlight, but after some eeny, meeny, miny, moe action, Hör Auf! won out, with its general funk-psych-prog weirdness, amazing bass playing, wild Hammond, huge horns, and fluty flute. A full-on kitchen sink production if ever there was one. The phased pop-psych perfection of Du Gehst is another winner, and Nacht, Ich Träume Düster is a psychedelic miniature jazz-rock opera that covers more ground in five-and-a-half minutes than a week with an Interrail pass.
ILLÉS Holdfény 69 Qualiton SP 542 Hungary 7”, 1968
In the 60s seemingly every country in the world had its own Beatles, and for Hungary it was Illés. In 1964 they released the nation’s first beat record, an EP that included a cover of Long Tall Sally and two band originals.
Fast forward to ’68 and they’d kept pace with the times perfectly, releasing this heavily psychedelicised single with plenty of vibrato guitar, Fab Four harmonies and a wickedly unflashy organ/guitar solo.
They released several other singles well worth digging around for, such as Nem Érdekel, Amit Mondsz, Eltávozott Nap, and Menekülés.
In 1970 they gave an interview to the BBC during a 10-day tour of the UK (any readers catch one of these shows?) in which they criticised their Communist government. In return they were fined and banned from performing in Budapest for eight months. History was eventually on their side.
SZÖRÉNYI LEVENTE/ILLES Nehéz Az Út Qualiton SP 455 Hungary 7”, 1968
If forced to pick one fave from the 21 songs here, it would have to be this traditional Hungarian folk meets West Coast hippie A-side by Illés, somewhat confusingly released on 45 under the name of their lead singer and guitar player. Backwards sound effects, an upside-down drum beat and Middle-Eastern flute are stirred together in an unlikely mash that’ll have you up on your feet, waving your arms floatily around like the most out-of-it attendee at a free festival.
An original copy of the LP of the same name (pictured above) won’t cost you too much more either and it’s worth owning for the front cover image alone, which is perhaps the best visual summation of Communist psychedelia: longish-haired, purple-trousered, polka dot-shirted, and Lennon-bespectacled band members sitting on a vintage steamroller. Flower power meets workers’ power.
OMEGA EGYÜTTES Nem Tilthatom Meg Qualiton SP 491 Hungary 7”, 1968
Playing their first shows in 1962, Omega’s career (Együttes simply means “group” and was eventually dropped) followed a familiar path – cover version singles giving way to albums of original material as the decade went on. By the 70s and 80s they’d become Hungary’s biggest rock band.
Back in 1968 they played a concert in Budapest with Traffic and The Spencer Davis Group, impressing manager John Martin enough to be invited to tour the UK, where they were billed as Omega Red Star. They even managed to secure a deal with UK Decca, recording and releasing the now very rare Omega Red Star From Hungary LP.
The album delivered English versions of their songs, but weirdly didn’t feature their usual lead singer who had to return to Hungary to take his degree exams. One of the highlights of that LP was the pounding fuzz guitar/Hammond blast of There Is Nothing I Can Do. Back in Hungary, B-side Nem Tilthatom Meg was the domestic recording of the same song. It’s not quite as good as the Decca version, but it’s umpteen times more affordable and much easier to find.
HUNGÁRIA EGYÜTTES Rémlátomás Qualiton SP 464 Hungary 7”, 1968
The debut 45 by Budapest’s Hungária kicks in with an enormous yet somehow claustrophobic drum and bass sound (like the one captured by producer Larry Page on sides by mod faves The Loot) which is quickly joined by an exceedingly grimy fuzz guitar.
The song’s somewhat basic blues-based structure is excused by some strange sound effects, more fuzz guitar, and an organ solo which sounds like it was borrowed from the party scene of a swinging London film.
The band kept at it until 1982 and along with Illés and Omega were cornerstones of the 70s Hungarian rock scene. The 1970 LP Koncert A Marson (“Concert On Mars”) has psych moments too, particularly the track A Babonás Lány.
FLAMENGO Paní V cerném Supraphon 0430345 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1967
Prague’s Flamengo formed in 1966 and started banging out quality 45s the year after. Paní V Černém (“Lady In Black”) is a fuzzed-up pop-psych B-side with hypnotic bass and a heartily reverbed lead vocal.
That vocal is supplied by Karel Kahovec who had sung with an early line-up of Czech psych legends The Matadors. Hear, for example, their tripped-out song Indolence or the oft-comped Get Down From That Tree. But back to Flamengo.
Other fuzzy psychedelic-tinged tracks from 1967 worth investigating are Poprava Blond Holky and Vyber Si Palác. The band are also responsible for one of the most sublime cover versions ever committed to wax, the exceedingly white almost-funk of James Brown’s Say It Loud (misspelled as Fay It Loud) on which they skilfully manoeuvre the whole issue of not actually being of African descent by replacing the words in parentheses from the original with “Na Na Na Na”. You can check it out and disbelieve it yourself on the 1969 live LP 2 Československ. Beat-festival.
FLAMENGO Co Skrýváš V O cích Supraphon 0 43 0457 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1968
Before the awkward funky misstep of Fay It Loud, Flamengo dropped this overtly psyched-up single on the public.
Translating as “What You Hide In Your Eyes”, it’s got to be among the most out-there A-sides of ’68. Distorted guitar buzzes around the mix like a demented fly, the song structure is unorthodox, the solo is all over the place, and there’s even cowbell. I love it, don’t get me wrong… but honestly, what were they thinking?!
Flamengo kept at it until 1972 when they released their debut album, the jazzy prog rock of Kuře V Hodinkách, which translates as “Chicken In The Watch”. Banned by the Communist regime under one of their periodic crackdowns on rock music, they split shortly thereafter.
PAVEL SEDLÁCEK & THE COLOUR IMAGES You Keep Me Hangin’ On Supraphon 0430813 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1969
Ripping a page directly from the Vanilla Fudge book, Mr Sedláček and his Colour Images deliver a rougher-around-the-edges reconstruction of The Supremes’ classic than the melodramatic Long Islanders, but to these ears that’s no bad thing. The bass might not be completely in tune, and there are definitely a few flubbed notes, but rock’n’roll ain’t always pretty.
The 45 before this featured a cover of Flowers In The Rain, so the band was definitely hip to what was going on in the West. Mr Sedláček himself is one of Prague’s pioneers when it came to performing US-styled music. He released his debut record in 1963 and is still performing with his Cadillac Band. Beatles fans might be interested to know of his 1970 EP Beatles Music, featuring a rather good English-sung version of perhaps the hardest song ever to cover: Strawberry Fields Forever.
ATLANTIS Dlouhý Stín Supraphon 0430564 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1968
Formed in Brno, the third biggest city in the former Czechoslovakia, Atlantis were around from the early 60s. By 1967 they were fronted by brother and sister singing duo Petr Ulrych and Hana Ulrychová, and in 1968 their recording career began.
One 45 from that year, the Cream-like Wine Or Love, is a real scorcher but is a wee bit too pricey for inclusion here. The single Dlouh. Stín is nice and cheap though. The opening sustained guitar note takes you right into Interstellar Overdrive, but it then quickly turns into a West Coast take on the Pearl & Dean theme tune, with a spiky guitar solo that prods in all the right places. B-side Král Umírá is a keeper too, an innovative production with sparse otherworldly verses and a zany instrumental break.
ATLANTIS You Don’t Love Me Anymore Supraphon 0430675 Czecholslovakia 7” 1969
In June 1969 Atlantis and the Ulrychovi siblings recorded their debut album Odyssea at the Supraphon studio in Prague. The LP got as far as receiving a Supraphon catalogue number but unfortunately was banned due to government censorship, remaining unreleased until 1990.
It’s a very classy piece of orchestrated folk psych and worth trying to cop a listen to sometime. Also from that year is the great English-sung B-side, You Don’t Love Me Anymore, sounding like the early Fairports if they’d used more organ. Fluid drumming, atmospheric harmonies and a sticky, folk-like melody make for a delightful two-and-a-half minutes of aural candy.
GEORGE & BEATOVENS Toreador Se Nesmí Bát Panton 040130 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1969
George & Beatovens formed in 1965 but despite almost immediate success had to split for a couple of years while some members did military service. During the hiatus, lead singer Petr Novák joined Flamengo, who we met earlier.
The band reformed when the other members retuned from the army and with their Western-sounding songs, Novák was considered by many to be the “voice” of the Prague Spring, that brief period of political liberalisation between Alexander Dubček’s election in January 1968 and the Soviet invasion in August.
Several tracks from their 45s and EPs could have been included here. Check out Špinav. Ráj Chud.ch (1968), Lež Bláznivého Básníka (1968) and Dívky Z Perel (1969) – all diggable cheapies. Toreador Se Nesmí Bát though wins inclusion by way of its loud as heck Spanish influenced distorted guitar solo which kicks in at the 1:20 mark. Even when the laidback melody comes back in, the fuzz guitar has established itself so firmly in the mix that it refuses to leave, snarling away while Petr and cohorts escort us out with their harmonies.
SYNKOPY 61 Válka Je Vul Supraphon 0430448 Czechoslovakia 7” 1968
Formed in Brno in 1960 by 14-year-old Petr Směja, Synkopy 61 broke into the big time in the typical way of East European rock bands: winning prizes at festivals organized by the powers that were.
It’s incredible to think that honours such as “Best Moravian group”, which they won at the first Czechoslovakia Beat Festival in December 1967, would have been bestowed by bureaucrats of the Communist regime. To realise just how crazy that is to the Western way of doing things, try to imagine a world in which the likes of Soft Machine or The Pink Floyd performed for suited civil servants to pass judgment. I digress.
By the late 60s the band had earned themselves the nickname the Moravian Beach Boys. They even got to open for the Californians when they played in Czechoslovakia in 1969. But there’s not too much evidence of The Beach Boys influence on the heavy garage psych of their 1968 single Válka Je Vůl.
Released as a split single with an orchestrated chanson number by Vladěna Pavlíčková on the A-side, Synkopy 61 deliver an anti-war message. It starts out with a bomb exploding, and when the dust settles, distorted guitar stabs form a jagged bed for the verse and chorus to lie on. A truly warped guitar solo gives way to a brief harmonica rave up and then we’re back in that jagged bed. Best played loud.
OLYMPIC Želva Supraphon 0430303 Czechoslovakia 7”, 1967
Prague’s Olympic began plying their trade in 1962, making their recording debut in 1964. The singles and EPs came thick and fast and some 20-odd releases later came the 45 in question here, of which Želva (“Turtle”) was the B-side.
Blasting off with wailing harmonica and sounding decidedly 1965, the track is meaty, beaty and catchy with some nice garage fuzz. It’s not exactly dripping with acid though, but then in the last 50 seconds dissolves into chiming power chords, howling feedback, and more wailing harmonica. A veritable rave-up with just enough flashes of lysergic madness. The song opened the band’s debut LP the following year, also titled Želva.
That album has the honour of being the first Czech rock LP, and also contains the total mindwarp that is Psychiatrick. Prášek (“The Psychiatric Pill”), a must-hear for anyone of a psychedelic bent.
OLYMPIC Zbytecná Holka Supraphon 0430561Czechoslovakia 7”, 1968
Another B-side from Olympic, and another garage-psych corker. Not speaking a single word of Czech, I put the song title into Google translate and discovered the title reads as “Unnecessary Girl” in English. Perhaps that explains the angry, feedback-drenched, ear-piercing guitar solo then.
While we’re talking about Olympic, it’s worth mentioning the 1969 EP they recorded and released in France on Vega under the name Five Travellers. Featuring English versions of tracks from their LP Pták Rosomák, it’s an excellent piece of angsty garage mayhem but not at all easy to find. A 60s band from Czechoslovakia recording an English-sung EP in France is quite an anomaly, but such releases are what makes the record collecting world go round, eh?
